Baseball’s 15 Biggest One-Hit Wonders of All-Time

DONTRELLE WILLIS, SP, MARLINS, 2005

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It might be slightly unfair to label Willis as a one-hit wonder since his first five major-league seasons were all pretty good, including his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2003. However, he never came even close to what he did in 2005—34 starts, 22-10 record, 223.1 innings, 170 strikeouts, 2.63 ERA, 1.13 WHIP. Those are career highs in every statistical category, and the big lefty did it at the age of 23. The rest of D-Train’s career, however, is not so impressive. He couldn’t hit the strike zone, he couldn’t get batters out and he definitely couldn’t stay healthy. Willis, believe it or not, is 29 and is still trying to make it back to the big leagues, potentially as a reliever.

Comments

While Brady Anderson’s meteoric 52 HRs might have seemed phenomenal, many have speculated he had a little “help” from steroids. It’s simply defies logic for such a drastic improvement followed immediately by an incredible drop off from that 52 dinger season.

I think a little bit of research might be helpful here. Mark Fidrych wasn’t derailed by a dead arm caused by a heavy work load. He injured his knee and did not report it which led to an arm injury. I guess some people just don’t care about accurate reporting any more.